Faculty leaders at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla are strongly objecting to a proposed merger or takeover by the University of Southern California, saying such a deal could “destroy much of what has been built and what we and others in the community value so much.”

U-T San Diego obtained the email the same day that UC San Diego unexpectedly emerged as another possible suitor for the prestigious institute.

UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla said in an interview: “I would certainly listen” if the institute proposed a merger or some other alliance. “I would talk to my colleagues, talk to my faculty, talk to my regents. ... There’s enough in there for me to say, ‘We need to talk a bit more.’”

Both USC and UC San Diego are interested because Scripps Research is among the most revered life science institutes in the world. Its faculty includes Nobel Prize winners and other top scientists whose work has led to the development of drugs to fight such things as cancer and arthritis. The institute also holds many lucrative patents, and it routinely collaborates with industry, particularly pharmaceutical companies.

Scripps Research is struggling financially for a variety of reasons, ranging from sharp competition for federal grants to a paucity of private donations.

UC San Diego expects to raise about $140 million in private donations this year, but it is unclear whether the public university would have the financial resources to acquire or merge with Scripps Research. The school already struggles to match the financial offers that private universities use to lure star faculty.

On Monday, two faculty members confirmed that department heads had spread word of the institute potentially merging or being acquired by USC. One of the professors said USC is prepared to use some of the money from its current $6 billion capital campaign to subsidize the deal. The university has already generated more than $3 billion since 2011. (Click here to read the original article).

“The Board of Trustees and senior administration of The Scripps Research Institute are in the process of analyzing and discussing with the faculty options for the institute’s future,” Richard Gephardt, chair of the Scripps Research board, said in a statement.

“The Board fully supports Scripps President Michael Marletta in this undertaking, and we are committed to finding a path forward that is in the best interest of the institute and the fulfillment of its mission at the forefront of biomedical science and graduate education,” Gephardt said.

Marletta and USC have not responded to numerous requests for comment.

Scripps Research was once affiliated with Scripps Health, which runs the Scripps network of hospitals. That combination of basic research and health care helped fundraising, said David Mitchell, a former top fundraiser for Scripps. Grateful patients donated large sums of money, which helped both research and clinical operations.

Then the two Scripps entities separated in the 1990s.

“In my view, had they stayed in the old umbrella arrangement, like when I first came to Scripps in 1987, I honestly don’t think they ever would have had a problem on the philanthropy side,” Mitchell said Friday.

The faculty leaders said they’re not entirely opposed to a financial deal with USC, but they sharply disagreed with the current provisions, which they didn’t specify. Their email said: “We understand that institutions like Scripps face serious financial challenges and have to face up to that reality. Under the right terms, and being fully protective of the ‘TSRI Brand’ and culture, merger with USC or another institution could be an option for TSRI.

“From the information disseminated so far, the terms of the proposed merger with USC are not even close to what it would take to build faculty support. From this perspective, the chairs and the faculty as a whole believe that remaining independent is a far better option.”

James Paulson, chair of the department of cell and molecular biology, told U-T San Diego: “The sentiments expressed (in the email) represent the collective sentiments of the department heads. I can say the letter was signed by all of the active chairs on both campuses.”

He stressed that the email was meant to be private.

UC San Diego’s Khosla said that “Intellectually, (Scripps Research scientists) are more of a fit with us than somebody else.”

He added that “Typically, I would not have thought of connecting with (Scripps Research) as strongly were it not for the properties of this (Torrey Pines) Mesa, where there is a powerhouse of health and biological sciences — Salk, us, Sanford-Burnham, TSRI. ... It is not clear to me that that culture would be maintained if somebody else came from the outside and absorbed the institutions.

“You, as a citizen of this great city, should also be concerned about this.”